


Drama Class: Romeo and Juliet

by heckinaces



Category: Topp Dogg (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Basically, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Hojoon and Sangdo are lowkey married, Jiho is awesome, M/M, OT13 - Freeform, Slow Burn, Slow To Update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-19 13:00:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8209436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heckinaces/pseuds/heckinaces
Summary: In an all-boys school, it's a mystery why their drama teacher decided that Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' would be the perfect play for her drama class to perform at the end of the year. Cast as Romeo, Kim Byungjoo literally fanboyed when he found out that Kim freaking Hansol AKA The Boy He's Had a Crush On Since Freshman Year was Juliet.Enter Shin Jiho, Hansol's closest friend, who figures out about Byungjoo's crush and decides to play matchmaker. Hopefully his efforts will result in some HanJoo feels.





	1. Prologue

“You’re not even trying!” Hojoon, who was the director of the play, selected by their drama teacher. Jiho just yawned in reply.

“Can we take a break?” He asked, “Hansol and I have been working on our lines since four a.m.” Hojoon rolled his eyes but agreed, letting all of the cast take a ten minute break. Jiho army-rolled across the stage to where Hansol and Byungjoo were sitting cross-legged and facing each other on the edge of their stage. 

“Wow, he’s generous.” Byungjoo was saying, “I thought it’d be a two minute break – at the most.”

“He just has a soft spot for Jiho and I.” Hansol replied, gesturing over to the youngest of the three. Jiho slid himself over to rest his head in Hansol’s lap, they’d been friends since they were young along with Hojoon, who saw them both as his younger brothers.

“Should we practice our lines some more?” Byungjoo asked with a hopeful glint in his eye. To Jiho, it seemed painfully obvious that he was interested in Hansol. Somehow, Hansol never knew when somebody was or wasn’t interested in him, whether it be romantically or just a physical attraction. But the other could always tell when other people were interested in each other. 

“Sure,” Hansol chirped, reaching for the folder behind him to grab his script. “Why am I Juliet, anyway?”

“Because you’re tiny and adorable.” Another boy, one of the more built members of cast, said as he walked by. Hansol threw a dirty look in his direction.

“Shut up, Dongsung!” 

“ _Moving on_.” Jiho interjected before Dongsung could reply. “Go through your lines, I’ll try to judge you just like Mr You-Blinked-Too-Much-Let’s-Try-It-Again.” 

“Hey! I can hear you!” Hojoon exclaimed from across the stage, making Jiho send him a look that said ‘you love me and you know it’. Jiho cleared his throat, signalling for Byungjoo and Hansol to begin their lines. They went on for a while, Hansol doing his part, Byungjoo doing his and Jiho laying on Hansol’s lap in silence. That was until they got to the romantic dialogue.

“Come on guys.” Jiho said after sticking his hand between their heads like a wall (which they had made the signal for when Jiho had something to say), “You’re supposed to be star-crossed lovers. Be _loving_ , damn it. I know it’s difficult because you’re guys and all but seriously.”

“Well sorry, Jiho, but I had to suffer through the pain of getting up at three thirty in the freaking morning to walk across a frozen park in my pyjamas to practice lines with you.” Hansol reminded him, the sass evident in his voice, “You ungrateful little shit.”

“No pain, no gain, hyung.” Jiho dismissed, waving him off. “Break’s almost over, anyway. Think you’ll pass that science exam next week, Hansol?”

“Probably not.”

“One of my friends, Sangdo, can help you with that, he’s one of the top students – in science especially. He’s been tutoring me recently.” Byungjoo chimed in, making Hansol grin and thank him. Byungjoo smiled back and Jiho could have sworn he saw Byungjoo’s eyes turn into the shape of hearts. He rolled his eyes, how did Hansol not pick up on Byungjoo’s little crush?

“What about you, Byungjoo?” Jiho continued, unintentionally breaking the two older boys’ eye contact.

“Nothing really, I got a puppy on Wednesday.” This instantly made both Hansol and Jiho perk up.

“A puppy?!”

“What kind?!’

“A Shih Tzu cross Maltese.” Hansol instantly awed and Jiho grinned. “My sister named him Jax.” It looked like Hansol was going to comment on the name but before he could, their oh-so-lovely director spoke again.

“Okay, guys! Break’s over, let’s take it from the top! Everyone backstage except for Hyunho and Yoochul!” Hojoon shouted, pulling everyone out of their individual conversations. Jiho groaned but complied as Hansol tried to push him into a standing up position and Byungjoo helped Hansol to his feet. Thankfully their backstage area was big enough for all of them to fit, even if it was a bit crowded. 

As the two onstage began their lines, Jiho observed Hansol and Byungjoo. Since the backstage space was slightly squished, Hansol had somehow ended up with his back pressed against Byungjoo’s chest, with the latter leaning against the brick wall of the backstage area. From the looks of things, Byungjoo was narrating something happening in the audience area. Probably Hojoon’s facial expressions. Every time Byungjoo whispered something, Hansol would laugh quietly and a small smile would grow on Byungjoo’s face. How did Hansol not get the hint? They already acted like they were dating.

Jiho internally groaned at how oblivious his best friend could be sometimes. Byungjoo and Hansol would make a cute couple, though. Jiho made a mental note to plan ship names for them once he got home. 

The more he watched them, the more he wondered if Byungjoo had already confessed. Probably not, Hansol was in all but one of Jiho’s classes and they had lunch together every day. Unless Byungjoo stalked Hansol or wanted to profess his love in front of his history teacher, his feelings were still a secret. Jiho made another mental note to ask Byungjoo what was up later. He began planning how to initiate the conversation. _‘Yo, Romeo, what’s up with you and Juliet?’_ sounded like a good way to do it. 

“Wait!” Hojoon yelled, all of the actors on the stage pausing in their lines. Hojoon turned around to face the Control Booth and called out to the boy operating the lights, “Hey! What are you doing over there, _sleeping_?!” Jiho winced, out of the corner of his eye he saw Byungjoo and Hansol pull similar facial expressions. The poor freshman boy looked like a deer in headlights, Hojoon could be scary when he wanted to and it was especially easy to make him mad with the stress he was under at the moment. As the young boy stuttered out an apology through the microphone, Jiho looked back at his script, looking over his lines as Benvolio. 

Being cast as Byungjoo’s cousin meant that Jiho would have chances to talk to him and hopefully convince him to profess his undying love to Hansol and then the two would date and get married and grow old together. It was Jiho’s responsibility to make sure that all of those things happened. 

It would all start with Romeo and Juliet.


	2. Chapter 2

If anyone asked Hansol why he suddenly found Jiho in his bathroom at three a.m., he wouldn’t be able to answer. It was definitely a surprise when he woke up to the sounds of things clattering and smashing and someone cursing, he kind of just followed the trail of destruction to find out where the noises where coming from.

“Uh,” Jiho started, _fabulous beginning to what had better be an explanation,_ “I needed a shower?”

“Try again.” Hansol replied, pushing Jiho away from the sink to fix up all the things that Jiho had knocked over (including his sister’s makeup as well as his dad’s aftershave and his mother’s perfume). He knew very well that Jiho would try excuse after excuse after excuse until either Hansol believed him or he was forced to tell the truth, whichever one came first.

“I had to pee?”

“Nope.”

“ _Fine,_ ” Jiho groaned out, exasperated. Almost like he was the one rearranging everything in the cabinet and on the sink. “For some reason I woke up at two a.m., and you know how much my mind wanders without any stimulus. So I’m lying there, and suddenly I started to think about you, and then I started thinking about your house. Your bathroom, specifically.”

“Go on.”

“And for some reason I couldn’t remember what your bathroom looked like.”

“So you decided to show up uninvited at three in the morning and explore my bathroom?” Hansol asked, slightly annoyed but mostly confused and freaked out.

“Basically.”

“How the hell did you even get in?!” Jiho tapped his nose with a single finger as a silent ‘that’s for me to know and you to never find out.’ Hansol sighed, knowing very well that there was no way Jiho would tell him. “Want some breakfast? There’s no way I can go back to sleep now.”

“Pancakes please.” Jiho said with a playful smile. Hansol rolled his eyes, a habit he’d gotten into whenever Jiho happened to be around. After putting the last toothbrush in its place, he gestured for Jiho to follow him out to the kitchen. Jiho took a seat at the island counter, while Hansol went to get ingredients.

“Just normal?” Hansol asked, looking away from the cabinet for a few seconds.

“Yep.” Jiho replied, popping the ‘p’. “So, what do you think of Byungjoo?”

“Byungjoo?” Hansol responded, looking extremely confused as he moved around the kitchen, “Uh, he’s great. Like, he’s good-looking and smart and funny, and you know, you can have a nice conversation with him. Why?”

“Oh, no reason.” Jiho dismissed, “Are you glad he got cast as Romeo?”

“W-what?!” Hansol exclaimed, almost choking on his own spit. “Um, I’m not sure how to answer that.”

“Just answer the question.” Jiho told him, “I swear, it’s not for anything weird.” _Apart from getting you and Byungjoo together. Nope, nothing weird._

“Okay,” Hansol replied, furrowing his eyebrows and he thought of a response, “Yeah, I guess I am. Mostly because he’s easy on the eyes and an actual pretty good actor, but I suppose I _might_ like him sort of? Like, it might just be based on his looks, so I guess I’ll know for sure once I get to know him better.”

“Yeah, of course.” Jiho agreed, holding back a victorious smirk. Mental note: make sure Hansol gets to know Byungjoo really, _really_ well. The rest of the time Hansol spent making pancakes, Jiho remained silent, stuck in thought land. If he could convince… Sangdo? Byungjoo’s friend who was helping him with academics, to play along and get the two together, it would work perfectly.

“Jiho, can you help me with my lines after you pig out on pancakes?” Hansol asked, glancing back at his best friend. Jiho nodded, an idea forming in his mind.

“Sure,” Jiho replied, “Do you know anyone else’s numbers? Members of cast and crew, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Hansol agreed, nodding slightly. “Uh, no. But I’m pretty sure Hojoon has everyone’s phone numbers saved, you could ask him?”

“Okay, thanks, I’ll try that right now.” Jiho said, fishing his phone out of his pocket. He’d gotten dressed so that he was at least slightly acceptable-looking when Hansol’s parents woke up. He scrolled down his contacts list, stopping at Hojoon’s name. Well, it was exactly Hojoon’s _name_ , but it was close enough.

**To: Harry Potter**

**HOJOON HYUNG.**

After pressing send, he looked at the contact name. Sure, Harry Potter wasn’t actually Hojoon’s name nor was it a proper insult, but hey, it could have been a lot worse. Younger readers should be glad that Jiho had managed to restrain himself.

**From: Harry Potter**

**Jiho what the fuck? Why are you awake and texting me at 3AM?**

**To: Harry Potter**

**It’s a long story. Ask Hansol. He’ll tell you and even add in some colourful language**

**Anyway, do you have anyone in the casts’ contact?**

**From: Harry Potter**

**Yeah, I have everyone’s, why?**

**To: Harry Potter**

**Not important. But can I have Byungjoo’s?**

**From: Harry Potter**

**Uh sure…**

After getting Byungjoo’s number, Jiho momentarily contemplated waiting until an ‘appropriate’ hour before texting him. Nah. He’d already disrupted two peoples’ sleep, what’s one more? Thinking hard, Jiho decided that he should at least be slightly classy about it. He had to make Byungjoo’s number into a contact.

**To: Romeo**

**Hey, is this Kim Byungjoo?**

He ended up receiving a reply about a minute later, the sounds Hansol made as he moved around the kitchen and cooked became a distant background noise. Jiho had to focus if his plan to get Byungjoo and Hansol married was going to work.

**From: Romeo**

**Yes…**

**Who is this and why are you texting me at three am?**

**To: Romeo**

**Hmm. That question seems to be trending…**

**This is Jiho, from drama class?**

**From: Romeo**

**Oh, you. How did you get my number?**

**To: Romeo**

**Hojoon gave it to me after I ruined his beauty sleep. That was literally like 2 minutes ago btw**

**From: Romeo**

**Fun.**

**To: Romeo**

**I’m sensing sarcasm :/**

**From: Romeo**

**Sigh. What do you want?**

**To: Romeo**

**Well, since you are Romeo and I am your cousin, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out and work on our lines sometime. You probably need to work with Hansol more, but Benvolio and Romeo act more like brothers or friends than cousins, so I feel like we need to be friends irl.**

**From: Romeo**

**Uh yeah sure, but can you wait until we get to school for us to talk about this?**

**To: Romeo**

**Ugh fine go back to sleep and be a peasant then.**

**From: Romeo**

**Gladly**

Just as Jiho put his phone away again, Hansol turned around and handed him his pancakes. Jiho grinned at his best friend, knowing that soon Hansol would be cheerful too.

“Thanks, Hansol, you’re the best!” He exclaimed, putting on his most angelic yet happy face. Hansol beamed back, but still rolled his eyes. Jiho had been expecting that, this was Kim Hansol, after all. His tiny friend came over to sit beside him at the island counter. Jiho may have been younger than Hansol, but that didn’t mean he was shorter. He was actually much taller and had more muscles than the other, partly because of his genetics, and partly because he went to the gym more than Hansol.

“I know I am,” Hansol said, stealing a pancake and placing it on a plate that Jiho only just noticed he had brought with him, “God, do you think that people as perfect as myself just walk around all day completely unaware of their perfection?”

“Calm down, _Narcissus_.” Jiho remarked, earning a small smile from his friend, “Want to practice being a girl now?”

“Alright, let me go get my script.” And then he chomped down the last bit of pancake he had left and hopped down off of his stool and skipped of towards his room. He literally _skipped_ away, but still wondered why he got cast as Juliet. Jiho rolled his eyes, Hansol never saw the same logic as him, even if they were best friends. Jiho’s phone buzzed in his pocket, slipping it out to see who it was, he laughed a bit at the new text from Hojoon.

**From: Harry Potter**

**Thanks a lot asshole now I can’t get back to sleep.**

“Why did you wake Hojoon up?” Hansol whispered into his ear, making Jiho jump in his seat.

“Uh,” _brilliant response._ “It’s a long story. Got your lines?” Hansol furrowed his eyebrows but nodded, holding them up. Jiho slid off of his stool and followed Hansol into the living room. Despite the comfortable looking couches, they both opted to sit on the floor. Having read through his own script multiple times before, Hansol had a lot of his lines down. None of them really surprised him, since he delivered them almost perfectly. Of course, he still needed his script for most of them.

“You’re doing good, but seriously,” Jiho looked him dead in the eyes, “Juliet and Romeo are star-crossed lovers. _Lovers_. Why can’t you seem to be romantic?”

“I don’t know.” Hansol groaned, flopping backwards to rest on the carpet. He unfolded his legs, feet resting on Jiho’s lap. “I guess it’s just weird, you know? Like I’ve never felt that way about anyone before, so I don’t know how to speak like I have.”

The only solution that came to Jiho’s mind was ‘get Hansol and Byungjoo together so they can be legitimately romantic’. But he couldn’t say that _yet_. So instead he said, “Well, why don’t we watch the 1996 version of _Romeo + Juliet_ so you can see how you’re supposed to say the lines?”

Hansol perked up instantly. “That’s a great idea, Jiho! We can watch it today after school.”

“Better yet, why don’t we watch it with Byungjoo, that way he’ll know how to perform them too?” Hansol beamed and nodded his head. The plan was working already. Slowly, yes, but it was still working. “Do you want me to hire out the movie?”

“No,” Hansol responded, “I will, you paid for my drink that one time.”

“Hansol, that was a year ago.” Jiho said drily, his best friend was so stubborn sometimes.

“It still happened.”

“I don’t think the movie is going to cost the same amount as a drink.”

“But then we’ll be even.”

“No we won’t, because you’ll end up paying more than I did.”

Hansol puffed out his cheeks in irritation, looking about three years old when he did. Jiho held back a grin, he knew he’d won for now. He almost always did, though, because even if Hansol had more of a fighting spirit than him and was just as stubborn as him, Jiho could argue more intensely and always managed to render the other speechless.

“Look, you’ve got to come straight home after school anyway, so I’ll get the movie and then you can practice a little more before we watch it.” Jiho said, he wasn’t even going to let Hansol pay for half. That would mean that his hyung had won the game and that would never happen on Jiho’s watch.

“Fine.” Hansol replied begrudgingly, “But is Byungjoo coming back here with me or will he go with you?”

Jiho shrugged. “Whatever he wants to do.”

_Which, hopefully, is Hansol._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hbd to my Halloween baby Hojoon (I also feel that it should be a known fact that I wrote like 98% of this chapter like last year)


	3. Chapter 3

Finding Byungjoo was more difficult than Jiho had anticipated. The boy sure was an enigma, and Jiho couldn't be bothered to wait until lunch or Drama class to asked him to come over that afternoon. Thankfully, Yoonchul was easy to find and he always knew where everyone was. 

"What do you want,  _Jiho_?" Jiho rolled his eyes at the way Yoonchul spat his name as though it were an insult.

"If you're going to insult me, try using something other than my name, okay, camel face?" Jiho remarked sweetly. Yoonchul scowled before shutting his locker and leaning against it. "Anyway, have you seen Kim Byungjoo?"

"Yeah. Real sweet kid, pretty sure he's at least bi, about this tall," Yoonchul put his hand up near his shoulder. "He's a dancer, good with history and drama, not so good at science --"

"You know what I meant." Jiho said, exasperated. Yoonchul smirked at him.

"Do I?"

Jiho groaned and swiped a hand over his face. "Do you know where I can find Kim Byungjoo at this current point in time?" Yoonchul let a grin spread across his face.

"Of course I do, Jiho." Then Yoonchul went silent, still grinning at him and Jiho groaned again.

"Can you please tell me where he is?" 

"Well, since you asked so nicely: he's probably sitting at one of the benches in the courtyard with Sangdo, Sangwon and Sanggyun. If you can't find him there, check the dance club room." 

"Thank you, Yoonchul. How ever can I repay you?" 

Yoonchul shrugged, "I'll think of something." Jiho blinked at him as he began to walk away.

"Dude, I was kidding," Yoonchul had to turn around and walk backwards for a bit to answer.

"I wasn't." Jiho rolled his eyes and prayed to whatever god was listening that Yoonchul hit his head on a doorframe or something. Then he set off on his quest to the courtyard so he could find the Romeo to his Benvolio. 

For some reason, Byungjoo was startled to see Jiho show up in the courtyard and march over to where he was sat with his friends. Jiho couldn't think of a reason why. He'd said that they'd talk at school. Although to be fair, all Jiho could actually think about was how creepy it was that Yoonchul had been right about who Byungjoo would be sitting with. Sangdo, Sangwon and Sanggyun weren't really the kids you'd expect to sit with someone like Kim Byungjoo. He didn't mean that in a bad way at all, but Sanggyun had grown his hair out and dyed it bright red, he usually styled it with cornrows or something. Jiho only knew that because they had Math together. Sangwon was kind of like the personification of Canada, to be honest. He tried to be tough like some of the older, cooler boys like Hyosang but everyone knew he was a total sweetheart. Jiho was pretty sure that Sangwon was the youngest person in their grade, and he'd heard along the grapevine that he was actually about a year younger than everyone else. Sangdo was a freaking genius. He aced all of his classes, did all his homework and handed it in on time but weirdly, no one thought of him as a teacher's pet. He wasn't stuck up either, he was a nice guy.

Jiho didn't even  _know_ what to make of Byungjoo himself, though. He was fairy certain that Byungjoo and Hansol would make a pretty perfect couple. He could see it in the way they interacted even just as friends. They'd fit together. 

"Jiho?" Byungjoo questioned his existence.

"'Sup." Jiho greeted as he made his way closer to the group. Byungjoo blinked at him.

"Um," he looked at his friends, "not to be rude, but what are you doing here? Don't you normally hang out with Hansol?"

Jiho waved him off. "Yeah, but I went to his house this morning, I'm good."

He didn't miss the way Byungjoo's eyebrows raised momentarily, almost like Jiho had said something wrong.

"Ri-right, uh, so is this about the casting?" Byungjoo was so  _awkward._ Jiho took a seat next to him.

"Yes, stutters, it's about the casting. We're cousins, pretty much best friends and you're  _this_ awkward around me? We've got a lot of work to do."

Byungjoo blinked. "Did you just call me 'stutters'?"

"I did,"

Sanggyun snickered. "Told you someone would make fun of you if you didn't get ore confident, JooJoo."

"You know who likes cute, shy guys?" Jiho asked. Byungjoo's friends encouraged him to continue. He'd have to get all of their numbers soon. " _Hansol._ "

"You're so weird," Byungjoo shook his head. "And if he  _does_ like 'cute, shy' guys, what's he doing with you? I mean -"

Hold on. What?

Byungjoo thought - 

He was convinced that -

_What?_

That explained so much.

"Woah, woah  _woah!_ Hansol and I are not- we'd never- that's so disgusting I don't even want to think about that."

"You're not dating?"

"No, dummy- Jesus! Ew, he's like my brother. That's like if someone asked you if you and Sangdo were dating."

Byungjoo and Sangdo shared a look, flushed and looked at their laps. Sangwon looked to Jiho sheepishly. Sanggyun grinned. Jiho's mouth fell open.

"You two?! You dated? Oh my -!" Sangdo reached across the table and clamped a hand over Jiho's mouth.

"Listen, we were like fourteen and Byungjoo was freaking out because he thought he liked boys instead of girls so he kissed me to see what it felt like and realized maybe he liked both and I like guys and we were best friends so it felt natural and we were together for like a month before Byungjoo's mum found out and threatened to tell his dad so we broke up and stopped being friends for a while because it was so weird and embarrassing and then we realized it's stupid to let something like that end our friendship and here we are." Sangdo blurted out. He removed his hand from Jiho's mouth and sat back, breathing deeply. 

"Total cliche. I told them they should add a dragon or something and change it up every time they tell it but  _noooo._ " Sangdo elbowed Sanggyun to shut him up.

"Well, this is news to me."

Byungjoo grabbed his arm when Jiho stood up and made to walk away. 

"Jiho, please don't tell Hansol," he practically begged, eyes in full-blown puppy mode. "I don't want him to think I still have feelings for Sangdo when I don't."

Jiho's eyes softened. "I won't," and because it wasn't really in his nature to be too serious for too long: "Trust me, after you thought I was dating Hansol I kind of half blacked out, I only remember like half of this encounter."

Byungjoo grinned. He and his friends bid Jiho goodbye and started talking again as Jiho made his way to his locker. Hansol was at his own, next to Jiho's, chatting animatedly to the girl who had the locker on his other side. Her name was Jisoo, Jiho was pretty sure. He'd never spoken to her, but Hansol liked her. She was super sweet, according to Hansol.

Jisoo shut her locker and waved to Jiho in passing as she went to her first class. 

"Where were you?" Hansol asked Jiho, head tilted.

"Nowhere, just... gathering some intel,"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi it me
> 
> I took soooo long to update AND THIS IS SO SHORT oml I'M SO SORRY! I'm a terrible author, feel free to pelt me with rotten vegetables I totally deserve it (I guess I'm trying to find my feet again and see where I want this story to go??? If that makes sense, I'm kind of just dipping my toes back in the water with this chapter, but I'll try a cannonball soon)  
> alsoyou'llhavetoforgivemebci'vechangedalotinthepastyearandsohasmywritingstylesoi'mdoingmybesttomatchthewaythiswaswrittenbeforebut

**Author's Note:**

> Soon to be cross-posted to my AFF account - Blinkyy


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